On Monday, July 21st, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present BEHIND THE SCORE: THE ART OF THE FILM COMPOSER at LACMA'S Bing Theater. Talk show host Tavis Smiley will moderate the discussion, which will feature LA Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel (whose first feature score, The Liberator, is due to be released by Deutsche Grammophon at the end of this month), two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla, and another fellow, can't quite place his name..oh yes, John Williams. Although the event is currently sold out, there will be a standby line outside the theater the evening of the show, in case seats become available at the last minute.

Along with announcing the latest composers, songwriters and music editors invited to their Music Branch, the Academy has also announced some new music-related rules and regulations:

In the Music (Original Song) category, songwriters from established musical groups may now have the option to request that their song submission be considered under their group name. If the request is approved and the song wins the Original Song award, the group would receive a single statuette.

Music Branch members may not contact other Music Branch members to promote the nomination of their own song in any way, including via mail, email, telephone or social media [out of tact, let's just pretend we don't know who inspired that one]. Additionally, Music Branch members may not attend any special live performances of eligible songs unless attached to a screening.

For those interested in a different type of beloved movie music than what we usually promote on this website, Richard Lester's classic A HARD DAY'S NIGHT is receiving a 50th anniversary re-release this weekend, including a run at L.A.'s Silent Movie Theater. Live and Let Die composer (and, of course, Beatles producer) George Martin received his only Oscar nomination for his work on the film.

July 4 - Larry Herbstritt born (1950)
July 5 - Jerry Fielding's score for the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun" is recorded (1968)
July 6 - Hanns Eisler born (1898)
July 6 - John Ottman born (1964)
July 6 - Ron Goodwin begins recording his score to Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
July 6 - John Williams begins recording his score for Superman (1978)
July 6 - Frank Cordell died (1980)
July 7 - Johnny Mandel begins recording his score for Point Blank (1967)
July 7 - Gerald Fried's score for the Star Trek episode "Friday's Child" is recorded (1967)
July 7 - Recording sessions begin on James Newton Howard's score for The Fugitive (1993)
July 8 - Bob Alcivar born (1938)
July 8 - Jay Chattaway born (1946)
July 8 - John Addison records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "The Pumpkin Competition" (1986)
July 9 - Richard Hageman born (1882)
July 9 - Earle Hagen born (1919)
July 9 - Paul Chihara born (1938)
July 9 - Harald Kloser born (1956)
July 9 - Conrad Salinger died (1961)
July 9 - Jerry Fielding begins recording his score for The Outfit (1973)
July 9 - James Horner records his score for the Amazing Stories episode "Alamo Jobe"(1985)
July 10 - Georges Delerue begins recording his score for The Pick-Up Artist (1987)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

CODE BLACK - James Lavino

"Resident turned filmmaker Ryan McGarry sometimes displays shrewd instincts for hardheaded vérité -- there’s compelling stuff here, even if you shear away his occasional stabs at issues of bureaucratic overcrowding and corporate cost-cutting at the expense of intimacy. But elsewhere, there’s too much gloopy piano music underscoring the interviews; he could use this doc as a calling card for a gig on 'Grey’s Anatomy.'"

"This is Bong Joon-ho's first feature film made outside South Korea, and he proves here that he can work competently with an international cast and crew. His cinematographer Hong Kyeong-pho does a terrific job of providing different moods, Steve M. Choe's editing is sharp and efficient and Marco Beltrami's score is solid while never stepping out of the line."

Seongyong Cho, RogerEbert.com

"Among the generally impeccable craft contributions -- including composer Marco Beltrami’s excitingly big, brassy original score -- only the fully CGI exterior shots of the Snowpiercer itself disappoint, with an overly animated feel that lacks the texture and verisimilitude of the best modern vfx work."

Scott Foundas, Variety

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION - Steve Jablonsky

"Everything about Michael Bay’s fourth 'Transformers' movie is too much. Its 165 minute running time. Its convoluted plot. Its deafening score. Its product placement. Its never-ending action scenes. Its swooping camera work. Its overwhelming stupidity. Well before it finished I was numb from its bludgeoning excess."

Dave McGinn, The Globe and Mail

"And then comes 95 minutes' worth of explosions, shattering glass, and the spectacle of what it looks and sounds like when the steel flesh is ripped from living, breathing skyscrapers, all accompanied by composer Steve Jablonsky's musical score of diarrheic robot farts and Bay's apparently still festering amusement over what minorities look like when they're running away from scary sh*t."

Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

"The acoustics range from clanging and banging to a score by Steve Jablonsky that sounds as if he was twirling a knob on electronic trumpets between points marked 'mournful' and 'triumphal.'"

"The most touching moment in Michael Bay’s new Transformers movie takes place in the prologue. A cute dinosaur looks up at a giant spaceship that resembles an angry, glowing mollusk. The little guy’s eyes fill with awe, then terror as the vessel unleashes a barrage of explosions, stampeding all his dinosaur friends and blasting them to cinders. My heart went out to the critter, CGI figment though it was, knowing that once he was gone, no one else would evince as much pathos. Then, I thought, could Bay be alluding to Terrence Malick’s 'Tree of Life,' or maybe Disney’s 'Fantasia'? Sorry, just kidding. Just bracing myself for 165 minutes of explosions, car chases, cars turning into robots, images of cars, robots, and tiny human figures spinning in slow motion after an explosion or a car chase, ludicrous bathos, tight shots looking up Nicola Peltz’s tiny shorts, stentorian sound effects, cheap Wagnerian music, all shot and edited as if by a Cuisinart. In short, the cinematic equivalent of being tied in a bag and being beaten by pipes."

Peter Keogh, Boston Globe

"Hello, police? I’d like to report an assault. Where? Down at the MegaGigaGrandePlex, and it’s still going on. Come quick! I barely escaped with my life. The perp? Michael Bay. He gave me a full-body beatdown. His weapon? 'Transformers: Age of Extinction.' My poor eardrums were pounded to mush by nonstop hammering music and the wall-shaking sounds of endless explosions. Worse yet, they were terribly tortured by lines of dialogue like, 'Dad! There’s a missile in the family room!' And 'Sweetie, get my alien gun!'"

Soren Andersen, The Seattle Times

"That visual overkill extends to even the shorter scenes of individual bot-to-bot combat, and several haphazardly staged car chases appear to have been inserted to satisfy the auto lovers in the audience. The aggressive sensory assault is borne out by the breakneck editing of William Goldenberg, Roger Barton and Paul Rubell, and also by the score by Bay’s regular composer, Steve Jablonsky, which achieves a thundering majesty whenever the Autobots make a dramatic entrance, but is otherwise drowned out by the din of the Dolby Atmos sound mix."

Maggie Lee, Variety

"True, the film never actually shows the jets being dispatched to fight: 'Age of Extinction' is, like all the other 'Transformers' films, not about details but about the grand scheme of things. Its grandiose mission statement is, 'The biggest robots fighting the biggest fights' -- and it does the job by reducing everything to a drone. Aurally, Steve Jablonsky's nearly omnipresent musical score merges with the sounds of CGI pyrotechnics in one giant cacophony. Visually, the product placements eventually begin to blur, and not even the glimpse of a Chinese bank's ATM in the middle of Texas or the meaningless scene of Joyce drinking a Chinese soft drink while being pursued by deadly killing machines comes as much of a surprise."

Clarence Tsui, Hollywood Reporter

YVES SAINT LAURENT - Ibrahim Maalouf

"If there’s one thing that 'Yves Saint Laurent' makes perfectly clear, it’s that haute couture depends on finding the right model for the dress, and not the right dress for the model. While the eponymous designer is remembered as an eventual champion of ready-to-wear fashion, Lespert recounts his legacy with ready-to-wear filmmaking, sewing a story onto a life that it doesn’t fit and can’t contain. It’s a shame that Thomas Hardmeier’s gorgeous cinematography only compounds the identity crisis; the film is shot in a lushstyle that serves its Oscar chances more than it does its subject. (No such complaints about the loose piano score from Lebanese jazz prodigy Ibrahim Maalouf, who graces the material with a delicate wistfulness.)"

David Ehrlich, The Onion AV Club

"The fact Swiss director of photography Thomas Hardmeier and ace production designer Aline Bonetto had just collaborated on Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 'The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet' ensures that their work is fully synced, and the rich contributions of costume designer Madeline Fontaine, who has frequently worked with Bonetto, further reinforce the impression that the visual aspects of the film are all very finely calibrated. Ibrahim Maalouf’s score occasionally dares to go for baroque or broke, lending an operatic quality to the proceedings that suits the material."